The Plowboy Interview: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

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Recently, staffer Pat Stone took one of Kübler-Ross's "Life, Death, and Transition" workshops, then followed her to Washington, D.C. and—later on—to her home in Escondido, California ... in order to get enough time alone with Elisabeth to complete this interview. He remarks: "The workshop I attended was a theater of catharsis, a moving lesson to me in the pain, and potential, of human existence. The majority of our 70-member group was motivated by Elisabeth's 'externalization of negativity' techniques to share and, in many cases, to positively resolve deep personal hurts and shames. And, although Elisabeth feels there are some advantages to working through painful personal issues at one of her workshops, she has willingly related many of her methods here ... so that people who wish to do so can use them on their own.

"Kübler-Ross herself was clearly one of the most intuitive, empathic, and loving people I've ever met. However, she was definitely not a mild a mannered 'softy This often very blunt woman demanded honesty from her workshop participants. On the other hand, though, she typically stayed up until the wee hours with needy individuals and, whenever I was with her, never failed to respond to the people who seemed to be constantly approaching her with appeals for help. Even during the last portion of our i interview-when we were in the secluded privacy of her mountain home (where she somehow finds time to tend her garden and goats)—she was often interrupted by the telephone. (After advising one such caller, a woman whose brother had just been killed, how to deal with her own grie f, Elisabeth suggested that the woman attempt to contact the murderer as well. 'That poor man's whole life will now be ruined. Try to have compassion and see whether you can help him with his pain.)

 "And , amazingly enough, she expends all this energy on a diet that 'generally consists of less than one full meal a day, attributing her tire I lessness to the fact that she loves her work and to her belief that once an individual cleans the negative emotions out of him- or herself, he or she will discover an abundance of energy. Without meaning to say that she's faultless, I have to conclude that, in my opinion, Elisabeth KüblerRoss is a saintly woman. "

We hope you enjoy, and gain from, what she has to say.

PLOWBOY: Elisabeth, you're credited with breaking through our culture's reluctance even to consider death, and with helping people learn to accept the end of life openly, but I'd have to say—after spending a week in your seminar—that the emphasis of your work is really on living!

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